I have a couple questions. I will probably have more as I think this through.
My 5th grade son attends public school. I am considering homeschooling him for the remainder of 5th grade due to illness. He has hardly been in school since mid January and it already feels like I homeschool with all the time I have to spend with him doing his make up work.

All I really want to do at this point is finish his 5th grade year at home and then send him back to public school next year if his health allows. He LOVED school until he got sick.

Although I have never homeschooled I am fairly familiar with the laws as I looked into it a few years ago when I lived in a terrible district.

My first question is about the 900 hours that Ohio requires per year. since he is almost at the 3rd quarter of this year would there be some sort of break down in how many hours I would be required to spend teaching before he goes back to public school in August? How would I know how many hours are required?

My next question is a bit trickier. I have read that I just have to call the school and let the principal know that I intend to homeschool and state that I have sent my notification to the superintendant. Most sites I have looked at say that is all the contact I should have with the school. Some even suggest having a 3rd party go to the school and get his belongings from is locker. However I have talked to this man a few times on the phone over the past 2 months. He has been more than helpful. He knows my son is having some serious health issues and he knows some of them are stress related and that school is one thing that is stressing him out at the moment. I really don't want to be curt with this man that has been so helpful to me in the past weeks. I also still have 2 other children in the system. I have no desire to alienate the school staff.

I would also really like to ask if I can continue to use his textbooks. If he is to return to public school in the fall. I want to make sure he has covered the same things his peers have covered.
Ohio also requires that I either submit a portfolio or have him take the ohio achievement test. His school will be taking it next month and if possible I would still like him to test with the school. It's in my best interest to remain on friendly terms with the principal.

One of my biggest concerns is keeping this as stress free as possible for my son. I think at first having his familiar books will be comforting for him.

I really need to begin homeschooling him as soon as possible.

So, do I pull him out with hardly talking to the principal as so many sites suggest or do I use a bit more tact and and ask if I can continue using his texts and workbooks?

My first question is about the 900 hours that Ohio requires per year. since he is almost at the 3rd quarter of this year would there be some sort of break down in how many hours I would be required to spend teaching before he goes back to public school in August? How would I know how many hours are required?

I would think that you could count the hours he was already in school as school hours. Then unless you are required to document every minute of your day, I wouldn't worry about it. Just do the work. If you do it in 2 hours great if it takes 6 then well it took 6 hours. My state says I am supposed to have school so many hours each year too and I just do my lessons and go on. I don't count hours. As long as they know their stuff how is the state going to know how long we took each day. And even if they ask...how do they really know.

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My next question is a bit trickier. I have read that I just have to call the school and let the principal know that I intend to homeschool and state that I have sent my notification to the superintendant. Most sites I have looked at say that is all the contact I should have with the school. Some even suggest having a 3rd party go to the school and get his belongings from is locker. However I have talked to this man a few times on the phone over the past 2 months. He has been more than helpful. He knows my son is having some serious health issues and he knows some of them are stress related and that school is one thing that is stressing him out at the moment. I really don't want to be curt with this man that has been so helpful to me in the past weeks. I also still have 2 other children in the system. I have no desire to alienate the school staff.

If the principal is nice, you have already spoken to him, and he understands the situation then I don't see why it would be a problem for you to get his stuff. I think, more than likely, that it is recommended that a third party go because of tensions between the school and parent. Teachers tend to take it personally when you pull your children out to homeschool. Sad part is that the teachers, although there are some bad ones, aren't usually the problem. They are doing what they are told to do.

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I would also really like to ask if I can continue to use his textbooks. If he is to return to public school in the fall. I want to make sure he has covered the same things his peers have covered.

My sister had Mono one year and the school she was in let her use the books she had already been issued while she was out, which was the majority of the year, since she was planning on coming back the next year. Granted this was quite a while ago but you could still ask. The worst they can do is say no. If they say no, if it were me, I would ask for a list of the state standards for his grade, find someone who could lend me some curriculum, and just make sure you cover anything on the standards list that they haven't covered yet in school. Or if you can do this in Ohio maybe just use the library to find books to use to cover the state standards. If you aren't planning to continue with your child at home I wouldn't buy to much.

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Ohio also requires that I either submit a portfolio or have him take the ohio achievement test. His school will be taking it next month and if possible I would still like him to test with the school. It's in my best interest to remain on friendly terms with the principal.

Again I would ask since you plan on sending him back next year. Otherwise I would give him the IOWA or CAT tests. I don't know the laws there but my state requires yearly testing and I give my kids their tests in our home, we use the IOWA test.

So, do I pull him out with hardly talking to the principal as so many sites suggest or do I use a bit more tact and and ask if I can continue using his texts and workbooks?

It wouldn't hurt to ask, I suppose, BUT do NOT agree to do anything more than what the law requires of homeschoolers. You can play nicey-nice ; but agreeing to do more than what the law requires is not playing nicey-nice. It can come back to bite you, and it can bite other hsers, as well ("Kyra agreed to do thus-and-such; let's see if we can get other hsers to do it, as well. Then we'll have more control." Yes, public school officials think that way.)

It might not be necessary to use the same books and materials that your ds uses now to keep him where you want him to be if you decide to put him back next year. It might save you money, but it isn't necessary._________________Married to Mr. Ellie for over 30 years
Mother to 2 dds and 2 dsil
Grandmother to 1 sweet boy
Caretaker of 2 budgies

Thanks for the replies.
Don't worry about me agreeing to do ANYTHING. I have read and re-read the law. I know my constitutional rights. The govt in my opinion has too much control. This is why I came here to ask questions. I want to make sure I correctly follow procedure. I've had personal experience with the law trying to overstep their bounds. I don't really expect the school to be with me on my decision but I really don't want them to be against me either.

This is why I posted here. I wanted to make sure I wasn't asking for anything I shouldn't

Getting started with this feels overwhelming sometimes. I just made the decision less than a week ago to remove him from the public school.

It wasn't even a really difficult decision. I am not even really worried about the hours. I have always managed to work learning activities into daily life. I realized when my dd was very small and identified as gifted that I couldn't rely on the schools to teach her everything and it was going to be up to me to supplement her education. The hours will be there and then some. Teaching doesn't mean I have to sit at a table for hours on end and teach from a book. Life provides more interesting opportunities.

I took a look at the Ohio state standards today. He's already covered most of it even though he hasn't had a full week of school since early January. There are some things there we will need to review and go into a bit more depth on that what he covered in school. I am looking at only having a little more than a quarter of this school year to cover but he's actually missed almost a half year of school.

He's been using Saxon math since Kindergarden. He's great at math. He's asked if we could move ahead there at a faster pace than they do at school. I told him we would take it one day at a time and see where it leads. This is the main book I would have liked to get from the school, but ebay has some good prices on saxon math text books. As long as I have something to guide me I will do okay.

As for taking the test with the school. I can't seem to make a decision about that. I'd kind of like him to take it just because he is already familiar and comfortable with it. He's always done exceptionally well on it, but he's missed so much class time. I am afraid it might be stressful for him and stress has to be avoided right now.

He keeps asking me if we can study different things that interest him. Most of which I can work into meeting the criteria of the state standards so I think I am just going to toss the idea of using his text books, use the state standards as our guideline and let him lead the way.

I don't know if I will continue teaching him at home at this point. I don't know how his health will be. I only know that since I have told him I am going to homeschool him he is already feeling physically better.
Not having all this makeup homework looming over him was a huge weight off his shoulders. When he does manage to go to school he seems perfectly healthy to his teachers and classmates. A few have made comments about he doesn't seem sick, he doesn't want to explain and nor should he have to. It just stresses him out, he feels guilty about not being there as it is.

He's having digestive problems. He has constant pain. We don't even have a diagnosis yet. He sees a specialist this week for more tests. Stress definitely makes his symptoms worse so I am doing whatever I can to remove the stress and taking things one day at at time.

He's having digestive problems. He has constant pain. We don't even have a diagnosis yet. He sees a specialist this week for more tests. Stress definitely makes his symptoms worse so I am doing whatever I can to remove the stress and taking things one day at at time.

The year you use for calculating hours dates from when you start homeschooling, not the start of the school year. So you have until the same time next year to accumulate 900 hours. Also, you can be fairly creative as to what you consider education - doing chores around the house could be considered home ec, for instance._________________Homeschool Articles - Events - Support Groups

He's having digestive problems. He has constant pain. We don't even have a diagnosis yet. He sees a specialist this week for more tests. Stress definitely makes his symptoms worse so I am doing whatever I can to remove the stress and taking things one day at at time.

Then you're doing the right thing for the right reasons.

mark

Thanks Mark. I know what I am doing is the best decision but that isn't what I am hearing from everyone. It's always nice to find someone that agrees with me I see no other way to get him healthy and keep some of what is left of my sanity.

The year you use for calculating hours dates from when you start homeschooling, not the start of the school year. So you have until the same time next year to accumulate 900 hours.

Worded this way it makes perfect sense.

I have no text books to work with yet. We are waiting on some to come in the mail and my printer just quit working so I can't print out some things I would like to do. The past 2 days have given me a crash course in being creative.
We play a popular online game together with a fairly good player run economy He is already very familiar with the auction house in the game. He just never thought of it as supply and demand. We also have worked on a budget with some goal for an item he wants, this involved some math and planning.
Am I not going to list this game on any resource list but I got the point across and that is what matters.